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Roberto Martinez interview

efc1111

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Louis
Louis

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/clubs/everton/article4166436.ece?shareToken=18a62f053b29f6145531e6a25e1c6974

Romey 1878
Romey 1878

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/dec/02/roberto-martinez-everton-david-moyes-united  

Matt
Matt

From the BBC

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Louis Apprentice

Louis

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At the start of this summer I spent a couple of hours in the company of Roberto Martinez discussing his ideas for a column he would be writing for The Times during the World Cup. His thoughts were varied but there was one consistent theme, a common thread that ran through all of his suggestions: the belief that psychology and how teams handle the mental side of the game would be just as crucial as talent, if not more so, in determining the outcome of the tournament.

It would be “fascinating” to see how Brazil coped with the pressure of being hosts, Martinez said. It would also be “interesting” to watch the way the European teams approached the competition in the knowledge that no team from their continent had previously won a World Cup in South America. Colombia, he argued, were one of the most talented teams at the tournament but needed to show that they could deal with the expectation that had been building in their homeland. And so on and so on.

Each and every nation was assessed, their strengths and weaknesses were compartmentalised and finally their mental capacity to handle what lay ahead was scrutinised. This, it should not be forgotten, was for a national newspaper column. Martinez was not preparing for a competition that his own team would be involved in but the extent of his preparation suggested otherwise.

Those who know him best would willingly tell you that this is entirely normal. The Everton manager is one of the most thorough in the game, one who believes the search for advantages (and disadvantages) is never-ending and takes in mind, body and soul.

At Wigan Athletic, the players became increasingly used to this approach and, in the main, they thrived upon it. The day after a 3-2 home defeat to Swansea City put them in grave danger of relegation, they arrived at their training ground to discover that Martinez had removed all of the photographs of Wigan’s Premier League games that season and replaced them with ones from their remarkable FA Cup run. This was a managerial mind game in its purest sense and the effect was immediate.

“Suddenly, we were looking at the walls and seeing images of our great win at Everton and semi-final victory over Millwall at Wembley,” Paul Scharner said. “It lifted the whole mood and made us all feel a lot better about ourselves. It seems he is catching on! The mind is so important. Everything is in your head.”

Another insight into the way Martinez worked at Wigan – and one that applied later at Everton – came before a fixture against Manchester United during the 2010/11 season, when the Spaniard had identified that his own side’s major weakness against the most successful team of the Premier League era was their mindset. “We have to forget we are playing Manchester United and not fear them,” he said.

“That would be the best mental approach, because there is a psychological block we have to overcome before we even start the game. They are the only team we have never taken a point off in our history. The results we have had against them have built up a mental block and so the moment we think about who we are playing it becomes a harder task.”

Martinez’s approach did not work immediately, United won the game 5-0, but the next time they met his message had got through and Wigan recorded a famous 1-0 victory. They later went on to win at Anfield, the Emirates and Goodison Park. The mental block had been removed.

Martinez was faced with a similar situation after taking over at Everton who, despite being one of the country’s most successful clubs and a consistent fixture in the top half of the Premier League table, had failed to win in any of their previous 46 away games at Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. It was a sorry record, one that was totally unbefitting a club of their stature and history, but one that he believed could be put right.

There would be no more talk of “taking flick knives into gun fights” or counter-productive attempts to ascribe favouritism to their opponents; when Everton took on one of the “Big Four” under his management they would do so with the psyche that winning was not just possible, but absolutely achievable.

Everton duly won at Old Trafford for the first time since 1992, produced arguably their best performance of the season in drawing away to Arsenal and were only beaten at Stamford Bridge by a John Terry goal that arrived in the fifth minute of stoppage time. What happened at Anfield, a 4-0 defeat to Liverpool, was an aberration in this sequence of results. Everton had otherwise proved that they were finally ready to compete on the biggest of stages. Their entire mental outlook had been changed.

All of which, in a roundabout way, brings us to the signing of Romelu Lukaku. On the surface, this is simply a case of a club using the vast proceeds of the new television deal to sign a player who had performed well for them while on loan last season. The reality, though, is that it represents so much more than that.

The Lukaku signing is the moment when Everton finally punched their weight in the transfer market, after years of watching their rivals steal a march. True, they now have the werewithall to do so but whereas in the past Everton would have spread such a lucrative bounty on three or four players, maybe even five or six, this time they have splurged on one with the loose change being spent on squad strengthening.

Martinez has not just altered the mentality of his players, he has changed the mentality of his club. Everton have not only almost doubled their own transfer record by signing Lukaku for £28 million, they now have within their ranks one of the most expensive players in English football history. With such status comes additional pressure: Lukaku has to score goals regularly and Everton have to compete. That, though, is what Martinez wants more than anything else.

He does not want excuses to be made for his team before they play and he certainly does not want them to make excuses for themselves; he wants Everton to have the kind of pressure that goes hand-in-hand with being competitive and he wants his players to be able to deal with it and embrace it.

The acquistion of Lukaku is not just Everton’s biggest financial transfer of recent time; it could also prove to be the most crucial psychological move they have made in the modern era and the potential for that will not have been lost on Martinez.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/clubs/everton/article4166436.ece?shareToken=18a62f053b29f6145531e6a25e1c6974

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badaids Grand Master

badaids

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I love hearing this from Martinez. Talent mean nothing if you aren't motivated to apply it. My opinion is that a lot of a manager's job is to remove the various psychological barriers to performance that a play has and get the best our of them. Could be anything: family or money worries, to a new young foreign play in a new country with no language, or a big name that has failed in his last club. This is something that Allardyce used to be good at (Anelka, Djourkaeff, Campo and Okocha), but from the little I have seen from Martinez in interviews and with his teams, he is really good at this. When ever I hear him I speak I think 'I would love to work for that man'. Loved Moyes, but never felt that for him.

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MC11 Rising Star

MC11

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Playing it safe in case we fall a bit flat this season you reckon?

Being honest yes he's covering himself. But last year is going to be very tough to beat and even match, you can't blame him. I just love the fact he isn't scared to go after games! It's refreshing and exciting!

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Bailey Grand Master

Bailey

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Just think he's being genuine tbh.

 

Yeh me too. He isnt saying we might not win a trophy this year because I am building for the future, he is saying I plan to be at the club for the long haul and whilst I want to win things now, I want to make sure we can keep winning in the future too.

 

i wonder if Wigan fans felt the same way when he gave interviews

 

He did genuinly feel the same about Wigan though. He spent a lot of his career at Wigan, but I expect most Wigan fans would understand that he needed a new and bigger challenge. Unfortunately it may also happen to us in the future but I dont doubt his commitment to the club while he is here.

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Paddock Newbie

Paddock

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He did genuinly feel the same about Wigan though. He spent a lot of his career at Wigan, but I expect most Wigan fans would understand that he needed a new and bigger challenge. Unfortunately it may also happen to us in the future but I dont doubt his commitment to the club while he is here.

That 's a pretty fair and balanced assessment and one I agree with.

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